With the forecast for the day looking particularly gloomy, tournament organizers made the decision to move indoors. However, this last-minute change of plan did not seem to throw top seed Peng Shuai, who was relatively untroubled during a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ilona Kremen.

"The opponent and the court may be different from my first round, but the most important thing is not the level of the opponent or the quality of the court, but how I play," Peng said. "It's strange to play indoors at an outdoor tournament but I'm just happy that I've won today!"

No.3 seed Misaki Doi also advanced to the quarterfinals, although her passage was not so straightforward. Despite sitting nearly 200 places above her opponent, Zhu Lin, Doi struggled for over two hours before finally pulling away to close out a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory.

And things are unlikely to get any easier for Doi, who faces No.6 seed Zheng Saisai next. Like Doi, Zheng did not have things all her own way in her all-Chinese clash with Xu Yi-Fan, recovering from losing a tight first set to triumph, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2.